Summary of the Iran Stories of Today's BroadcastsBehnam NateghiMonday, February 24, 2003
<b>UN Inspectors Observe Advanced Uranium Enriching Facility in Natanz</b>
* The UN inspectors, who accompanied the International Atomic Energy Agency chief Muhammad Elbaradei in his visit to Iran this week, were shown a network of sophisticated machinery to enrich uranium, spurring concerns that Iran is making headway in its suspected program to develop nuclear weapons, Western officials and international diplomats said today, according to the New York Times. (Iraj Arianpour)
* Undersecretary of State John Bolton arrives in Moscow to warn the Russian officials of the dangers of Russia-Iran nuclear cooperation. The US concern about Iran's nuclear weapons program increased last Friday after Iran showed its uranium enriching facility at Natanz to Muhammad Elbaradei, chief of the UN International Atomic Energy Agency. (Shireen Famili)
<b>Petitioners and Security Jam Streets around UN Human Rights Delegation's Hotel</b>
* For a third day in a row, crowds of petitioners, former political prisoners and relatives and lawyers of jailed activists and journalists, as well as police and security forces, jammed the streets around Hotel Laleh, where the delegation from the UN human rights commission spends the nights during its 12-day fact-finding mission to Iran. Paris-based human rights lawyer Abdolkarim Lahiji, who is in daily contact with the delegation members, tells <b>Radio Farda</b> that the delegation expressed concern about the arrests of some of the people who have requested to see them in order to testify about their own, or a relative's, arbitrary arrest and treatment in jail. He says the delegation would meet jailed lawyer Nasser Zarafshan and jailed student activist Ali Afshari, as well as other jailed lawyers and journalists, on its list of the 50 prisoners of concern. (Amir-Mosaddegh Katouzian)
* Farzad Hamidi, a political activist who was released last month after more than one year in jail, tells <b>Radio Farda</b> that today (Sunday) at 7 PM, the authorities transferred jailed activist Heshmatollah Tabarzadi, founder of the Democratic Front, and Mehdi Sanjari Kianoush, member of the central committee of the United Students Front, to solitary cells in a prison operated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. The transfer was related to the UN investigations. He says jailed student activist Manuchehr Mohammadi was transferred to a solitary cell in the Evin prison after he demanded to be treated for his bleeding gums. He says 15 were arrested in front of Hotel Laleh. He also lists 9 students from the Karaj chapter of his organization that he says have been arrested, some of whom, he believes, have been already been executed. (Mahdieh Javid, Washington)
<b>Impact of US Sanctions on Iran's Passenger Jet Fleet</b>
* Head of Iran's state-owned passenger airline Iran Air Davud Keshavarzian told a domestic news agency that the US sanctions prevented Boeing and Airbus from selling passenger jets to Iran. As a result, Iran's choices of jet suppliers became limited to the former Soviet Union manufacturers. In the past 30 months, more than 500 have died in the crashes of Iran's Soviet-designed passenger jets. (Fereydoun Khavand)
<b>Khatami Accuses the US of "Fanatic Fundamentalism"</b>
* In his speech today at the 116-nation Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit in Kuala Lumpur, President Mohammad Khatami gave an extraordinary assessment of the US foreign policy, accusing the United States of positioning itself as a violent "Big Brother" driven by "fanatic fundamentalism," reports the Agence France Press. (Jean Khakzad)
<b>Majles Complaints Committee to Review Former Ansar-e Hezbolah Member</b>
* Head of the Majles complaints committee Hossein Ansari-Rad said the committee will investigate the case of Amir-Farshad Ebrahimi, a former member of the secretive Ansar-e Hezbollah, whose videotaped deposition to his lawyers about the group's link to high-level conservative officials and religious leaders started a series of trials, arrests and jailing of Ebrahimi and his lawyers, Shirin Ebadi and Mohsen Rohami. However, both lawyers and Ebrahimi were eventually freed and cleared of any wrongdoing. Ebrahimi tells <b>Radio Farda</b> that his lawsuits against the judges who brought charges against him resulted in the judges' conviction. He adds that over time, those who claimed to have been toiling in the service the regime ended up in jail. He says the Majles investigation will focus of the content of his videotaped deposition, during which he claimed that he and other Ansar-e Hezbollah enforcers received orders to attack the ministers of interior and culture during a Friday prayer at the Tehran University, disrupt reformists' political rallies and set off a bomb in Mashhad near Iran's biggest religious shrine. (Mahmonir Rahimi)
<b>Airport Security Guards Arrest Supreme Leader's Vocal Critic</b>
* Security forces at the Tehran airport arrested two-times former MP and Tehran University political science professor Qassem Shoaleh-Saadi, who had issued a strong criticism of the policies of the Supreme Leader and questioned his ranking as a source of religious emulation in an open letter. Shoaleh-Saadi's son Javad tells <b>Radio Farda</b> that his father was taken into custody as he was returning home from a trip to Paris. He says the authorities allowed his father a few minutes visit with his mother, during which he told her that he was being taken to jail. He adds that he believes his father's letter, that is available on his website, and his recent articles in defense of Ayatollah Montazeri, were the reasons for his arrest. (Alireza Taheri)
<b>Conservative Prayer Leaders Campaign against Poets' Statues in Streets</b>
* As the mayor of Tajrish, north of Tehran, unveiled the statue of physics scholar and teacher Mahmoud Hessabi, known as the father of modern physics in Iran, on Hessabi's 100th birthday, prayer leaders in Gilan and other provinces launched a campaign against displaying the statues of poets and scientists in city streets and other public places, a practice they called un-Islamic. (Jean Khakzad)
<b>Welfare Organization Chief Puts AIDS Patients at 20,000</b>
* Head of the welfare organization (Sazeman-e Behzisti) Mohammad-Reza Chamani, in a statement on the occasion of the UN international AIDS Awareness Week, said the number of AIDS patients in Iran has reached 20,000. He warned against the spread of AIDS among addicts. However, AIDS experts in Iran maintain that despite the official position, more than 80 percent of AIDS patients are infected from unprotected sexual relationships. (Shireen Famili)
<b>Reformists and Nationalists Oppose Conservatives in Chamber of Commerce Elections</b>
* For the first time since the revolution, nationalist-religious activists began to campaign against the hard-line conservative politician-businessmen who have, since the 1979 revolution, dominated the Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Mines. Secretary General of the nationalist opposition party the Freedom Movement of Iran Ebrahim Yazdi asked business owners, manufacturers and exporters to actively participate in the Chamber's upcoming elections. Conservative politician Assadollah Badamchian, a Chamber board member, accused the reformists of plotting to "politicize" the Chamber. (Fereydoun Khavand, Paris)
<b>Iran's Economy and Recession</b>
* Director of the economic office of the management and budget organization Mohammad-Ali Moradi said Iran's economy has begun to pull itself out of recession since 1999. London University economy professor Masud Karshenas tells <b>Radio Farda</b> that higher oil income spurred more economic activity in the past three years. However, he adds, the growth remains vulnerable to oil price fluctuations. He says that Iran's economy could improve with a better management that would end the dependence on one product. (Shahran Tabari, London)
<b>Five Young Girls Burn Themselves to Protest Fanaticism</b>
* A number of young girls aged 14 to 17 burned themselves to death in villages around Shiraz to protest their families' fanatic beliefs and traditions. Tehran-based journalist Farhad Rezai tells <b>Radio Farda</b> that the various reports in domestic newspapers about the incidents disagree on the number of the girls, because each newspaper collects data from a different source, but the reports are nevertheless alarming because they point to a trend, which has also been fictionalized in such recent popular movies as Dariush Mehrjui's "Bemani," and the movie "Brides of Fire." (Mahmonir Rahimi)
<b>Court Summons Three Nationalist-Religious Activists</b>
* The Tehran Islamic Revolutionary court summoned Mohsen Mohaqeqi, former Tehran mayor Mohammad Tavasoli and Narges Mohammadi, wife of activist Taqi Rahmani. Mohammadi, who had earlier spent a week in solitary prison, is free on bail. Tavasoli is also free on bail awaiting his sentence. He was tried for subversion after being jailed for more than one year along with 15 other nationalist-religious coalition leaders. (Bahman Bastani)
<b>Local Council Elections Observers in Qom Resign</b>
* The members of the council to observe the upcoming elections of local city council in Qom resigned in protest against the central election supervision board's rejection of its recommendations to disqualify several reformist applicants for candidacy. Qom-based political activist Dr. Akbar Karami tells <b>Radio Farda</b> that the resigned election observers opposed the candidacy of reformist cleric and Ayatollah Hosseinali Montazeri supporter Gholamhossein Nadi, whom they accused of anti-revolutionary activities. (Mahmonir Rahimi)
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گردهمائي متقضاضيان ديدار با اعضاي هيات تحقيق كميسيون حقوق بشر سازمان ملل كه براي يك سفر 12 روزه در ايران به سر مي برندو همچنين تجمع نيروهاي امنيتي جمهوري اسلامي در اطراف اين هتل، باعث بند و آمدن رفت و آمد در خيابان فاطمي شده است. دكتر عبدالكريم لاهيجي، نايب رئيس فدراسيون جوامع جهاني دفاع از حقوق بشر كه با هيات سازمان ملل در تهران در تماس قرار دارد، در مصاحبه با راديوفردا مي گويد از بازداشت مراجعين در هتل لاله در زمان غياب آنها از تهران ابراز ناراحتي كرد. هيات مذكور دو روز براي ديدن شيراز و اصفهان به اين شهرها برده شده بود. وي مي افزايد: اعضاي هيات ابراز اميدواري كردند كه در روزهاي آينده با شماري از روزهاي آينده ملاقات كنند. آنها از جمله قصد دارند با ناصرزرافشان، وكيل زنداني و ساير وكلاي زنداني، و همچنين علي افشاري، فعال دانشجوئي اسلامي ملاقات كنند.
